Dominika Cibulkova bulldozes Lucie Safarova in semi-final – Generali Ladies Open 2011
Czech International, Lucie Safarova came head to head with the Slovakian International, Dominika Cibulkova in the semi-final of Generali Ladies Open contested in Linz, Austria on Saturday, October 15th. The third meeting
between the two contestants ended up in yet another disappointing defeat for the 24-year-old Czech. Slovakian now leads 3-0 in the head-to-head and has comfortably placed herself in the finals of the tournament after encounter. She cruised past her opponent
in just an hour and fifteen minute, registering a straight sets victory with a score of 6-1, 6-4.
Both had won six of their last nine encounters and were in-form at the start of the match. There is not much difference between the rankings of both players as well with Slovakian, World No.23, heading just four ranks above the
Czech International. Crowd was expecting an exciting match between the two but it was a tamed performance by Safarova who didn’t make any sort of impact at the pitch.
First set was all about the seventh seed superstar who bulldozed the Czech in all departments of the game. She broke her opponent’s server thrice and clinched 31 points to register an overwhelming victory in the first set. Disappointing
start to a hyped up match left some empty seats in the pavilions and more importantly, dismantled the confidence level of the 24-year-old. The only memorable moments were the ace and the break point she won during the first set, apart from that it was all
about Cibulkova’s exciting one-woman show.
Trailing with one set, Safarova composed herself again and came up with the much improved performance; but it was not good enough to extend the match to the final set. Cibulkova showed her power play and aced four times and coupled
it with the break point in the fifth game of the set to seal the victory. World number 27 won 27 points in the second set but fell seven points short of her opponent.
The overall stats for the Slovakian were really impressive. She won 84% points on her first serve compared to just 57% of the Czech. Seven aces, five from Cibulkova and just two from her opponent were another exciting stat in the
match but the most significant of all were the four break points won by her compared to just one of her opponent.
Seventh seed, World No.23, Dominika Cibulkova would now take on the top seed, World No.4, Petra Kvitova, in the final of the event.
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